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Chapter
5 - How They Fared on the Sea of Darkness

Did you ever set out, in the dark,
to walk with your little
brother or sister along a road you did not know much about
or had
never gone over before? It was not an easy thing to do,
was it?
And how did your little brother or sister feel when it
was known
that you were not just certain whether you were right or
not? Do
you remember what the Bible says about the blind leading
the
blind?

It was much the same with Columbus when he set out from
Palos to
sail over an unknown sea to find the uncertain land of
Cathay. He
had his own idea of the way there, but no one in all his
company
had ever sailed it, and he himself was not sure about it.
He was
very much in the dark. And the sailors in the three ships
were
worse than little children. They did not even have the
confidence
in their leader that your little brother or sister would
probably
have in you as you traveled that new road on a dark night.
It was
almost another case of the blind leading the blind, was
it not?

Columbus first steered his ships to the south so as to
reach the
Canary Islands and commence his real westward voyage from
there.
The Canary Islands, as you will see by looking in your
geography,
are made up of seven islands and lie off the northern corner
of
Africa, some sixty miles or so west of Morocco. They were
named
Canaria by the Romans from the Latin canis, a dog, "because
of
the multitude of dogs of great size" that were found
there. The
canary birds that sing so sweetly in your home come from
these
islands. They had been known to the Spaniards and other
European
sailors of Columbus's day about a hundred years.

At the Canaries the troubles of Columbus commenced. And
he did
have a lot of trouble before his voyage was over. While
near the
island called the Grand Canary the rudder of the Pinta,
in which
Captain Alonso Pinzon sailed, somehow got loose, then broke
and
finally came off. It was said that two of the Pinta's crew,
who
were really the owners of the vessel, broke the rudder
on
purpose, because they had become frightened at the thoughts
of
the perilous voyage, and hoped by damaging their vessel
to be
left behind.

But Columbus had no thought of doing any such thing. He
sailed to
the island of Gomera, where he knew some people, and had
the
Pinta mended. And while lying here with his fleet the great
mountain on the island of Teneriffe, twelve thousand feet
high,
suddenly began to spit out flame and smoke. It was, as
of course
you know, a volcano; but the poor frightened sailors did
not know
what set this mountain on fire, and they were scared almost
out
of their wits' and begged the Admiral to go back home.
But
Columbus would not. And as they sailed away from Gomera
some
sailors told them that the king of Portugal was angry with
Columbus because he had got his ships from the king and
queen of
Spain, and that he had sent out some of his war-ships to
worry or
capture Columbus.

But these, too, Columbus escaped, although not before
his crews
had grown terribly nervous for fear of capture. At last
they got
away from the Canaries, and on Sunday, the ninth of September,
1492, with a fresh breeze filling their sails, the three
caravels
sailed away into the West. And as the shores of Ferro,
the very
last of the Canary Islands, faded out of sight, the sailors
burst
into sighs and murmurings and tears, saying that now indeed
they
were sailing off --off--off--upon the awful Sea of Darkness
and
would never see land any more.

When Columbus thought that he was sailing too slowly --he
had now
been away from Palos a month and was only about a hundred
miles
out at sea--and when he saw what babies his sailors were,
he did
something that was not just right (for it is never right
to do
anything that is not true) but which he felt he really
must do.
He made two records (or reckonings as they are called)
of his
sailing. One of these records was a true one; this he kept
for
himself. The other was a false one; this he kept to show
his
sailors. So while they thought they were sailing slowly
and that
the ocean was not so very wide, Columbus knew from his
own true
record that they were getting miles and miles away from
home.

Soon another thing happened to worry the sailors. The
pilots were
steering by the compass. You know what that is --a sort
of big
magnet-needle perfectly balanced and pointing always to
the
north. At the time of Columbus the compass was a new thing
and
was only understood by a few. On the thirteenth of September
they
had really got into the middle of the ocean, and the line
of the
north changed. Of course this made the needle in the compass
change its position also. Now the sailors had been taught
to
believe so fully in the compass that they thought it could
never
change its position. And here it was playing a cruel trick
upon
them. We are trapped! they cried. The goblins in this dreadful
sea are making our compass point wrong so as to drag us
to
destruction. Go back; take us back! they demanded.

But Columbus, though he knew that his explanation was
wrong, said
the compass was all right. The North Star, toward which
the
needle always pointed, had, so he said, changed its position.
This quieted the sailors for a while.

When they had been about forty days out from Palos, the
ship ran
into what is marked upon your maps as the Sargasso Sea.
This is a
vast meadow of floating seaweed and seagrass in the middle
of the
Atlantic; it is kept drifting about in the same place by
the two
great sea currents that flow past it but not through it.

The sailors did not know this, of course, and when the
ships
began to sail slower and slower because the seaweed was
so thick
and heavy and because there was no current to carry them
along,
they were sure that they were somewhere near to the jumping-off
place, and that the horrible monsters they had heard of
were
making ready to stop their ships, and when they had got
them all
snarled up in this weed to drag them all down to the bottom
of
the sea.

For nearly a week the ships sailed over these vast sea-
meadows,
and when they were out of them they struck what we call
the
trade-winds--a never-failing breeze that blew them ever
westward.
Then the sailors cried out that they were in an enchanted
land
where there was but one wind and never a breeze to blow
the poor
sailors home again. Were they not fearfully "scarey?" But
no
doubt we should have been so, too, if we had been with
them and
knew no more than they did.

And when they had been over fifty days from home on the
twenty-fifth of September, some one suddenly cried Land!
Land!
And all hands crowded to the side. Sure enough, they all
saw it,
straight ahead of them--fair green islands and lofty hills
and a
city with castles and temples and palaces that glittered
beautifully in the sun.

Then they all cried for joy and sang hymns of praise and
shouted
to each other that their troubles were over. Cathay, it
is
Cathay! they cried; and they steered straight for the shining
city. But, worst of all their troubles, even as they sailed
toward the land they thought to be Cathay, behold! it all
disappeared--island and castle and palace and temple and
city,
and nothing but the tossing sea lay all about them.

For this that they had seen was what is called a mirage--a
trick
of the clouds and the sun and the sea that makes people
imagine
they see what they would like to, but really do not. But
after
this Columbus had a harder time than ever with his men,
for they
were sure he was leading them all astray.

And so with frights and imaginings and mysteries like
these, with
strange birds flying about the ships and floating things
in the
water that told of land somewhere about them, with hopes
again
and again disappointed, and with the sailors growing more
and
more restless and discontented, and muttering threats against
this Italian adventurer who, was leading the ships and
sailors of
the Spanish king to sure destruction, Columbus still sailed
on,
as full of patience and of faith, as certain of success
as he had
ever been.

On the seventh of October, 1492, the true record that
Columbus
was keeping showed that he had sailed twenty-seven hundred
miles
from the Canaries; the false record that the sailors saw
said
they had sailed twenty- two hundred miles. Had Columbus
kept
straight on, he would have landed very soon upon the coast
of
Florida or South Carolina, and would really have discovered
the
mainland of America. But Captain Alonso Pinzon saw what
looked
like a flock of parrots flying south. This made him think
the
land lay that way; so he begged the Admiral to change his
course
to the southward as he was sure there was no land to the
west.
Against his will, Columbus at last consented, and turning
to the
southwest headed for Cuba.

But he thought he was steering for Cathay. The islands
of Japan,
were, he thought, only a few leagues away to the west.
They were
really, as you know, away across the United States and
then
across the Pacific Ocean, thousands of miles farther west
than
Columbus could sail. But according to his reckoning he
hoped
within a day or two to see the cities and palaces of this
wonderful land.

When they sailed from the Canaries a reward had been offered
to
whomsoever should first see land. This reward was to be
a silken
jacket and nearly five hundred dollars in money; so all
the
sailors were on the watch.

At about ten o'clock on the evening of the eleventh of
October,
Columbus, standing on the high raised stern of the Santa
Maria,
saw a moving light, as if some one on the shore were running
with
a flaming torch. At two o'clock the next morning--Friday,
the
twelfth of October, 1492 the sharp eyes of a watchful sailor
on
the Pinta (his name was Rodrigo de Triana) caught sight
of a long
low coastline not far away. He raised the joyful shout
Land, ho!
The ships ran in as near to the shore as they dared, and
just ten
weeks after the anchors had been hauled up in Palos Harbor
they
were dropped overboard, and the hips of Columbus were anchored
in
the waters of a new world.

Where was it? What was it? Was it Cathay? Columbus was
sure that
it was. He was certain that the morning sun would shine
for him
upon the marble towers and golden roofs of the wonderful
city of
the kings of Cathay.